#sapientia oromasdis analysis

[nacrelysis]

HEY I JUST REALIZED.

"lord of dendro...should go home too." -> such a tragically ironic line.

where is nahida's home?

it's not in the desert, because her past with king deshret is forever locked behind irminsul's deleted records.

it's not in vanarana, because she has duties to the people of sumeru as well as the forest.

and yet it's not in sumeru city, because, you know. *gestures at the entirety of nahida's birthday teaser, her archon quest, etc.* even though nahida is slowly re-integrating into her role as archon, she is still unsteady. we see this in part one of her story quest, where she works to balance her people's desires with the greater good. and she succeeds! but it's a learning process.

traveler knows she was rukkhadevata, but nahida doesn't. that's the crux of the archon quest - that the sages can't let go of rukkhadevata. that they don't believe nahida to be capable. it's even ingrained in their titles.

greater lord rukkhadevata. lesser lord kusanali.

so the point is, that while traveler knows nahida is more than capable of all the duties necessary of a nation's archon - she doesn't quite know that yet. nahida is, for all she's immortal, a child who has so, so much to learn from a nation that did its best to erase, imprison, and ignore her for five hundred years.

can you feel at home in a place that used to be your prison? i struggle to reconcile that. i believe that given time, it's possible. the sages are deposed, and honestly nahida seems much more forgiving than she should be. see story quest one - she's doing her best to listen and learn from the dreams and hopes of sumeru citizens.

but there is also, admittedly, a large amount of trauma nahida no doubt has from the previous sages' treatment. isolated for centuries on end. blamed for the demise of the 'better,' 'greater,' 'more capable' god. treated and contained like some mistake waiting to be replaced. because that's literally what the sages tried to do.

so i still, still wonder. for all that sumeru city has grown, for all that nahida has learned and will learn after being freed, for all that she seems to reside in the sanctuary of surasthana - can she consider it her home yet?

so it hit hard when the fungi said that nahida should go home too. because it got me thinking - where is home?

what is home, to the dendro archon, god of wisdom, once-prisoner of humans?

i hope nahida finds it. i love and wish her all the best.